The present invention pertains to an apparatus for treating a plurality of gas streams in an apparatus and to modify the gas streams and process for such modification.
Gas flow management systems have been available for increasing the humidity in a gas stream. The control of their flow has been utilized in the pharmaceutical, food, or chemical industries. Control of humidity is particularly important to prevent rust or condensation for plant equipment, cargo ships and precision electronic parts. In addition, having control of the air streams is desired for certain crops dryness, such as, tea leaves, dried sea leaves, lumbers, mushrooms, fishes and other materials where there is a need for low humid storage. Fuel cell gas management systems are also areas for the modification of gas streams for decreased humidity. See U.S. Pat. No. 6,013,385.
The difficulties associated with previous air flow systems is that substantial mechanical action may be required to drive a rotating air flow chamber utilizing frictional forces widely separated from the rotating wheel. The idea of exchanging water vapor using a rotating desiccant substrate is widely used in the HVAC industries for commercial and residential applications. However, the problems associated with utilizing this technology for gas management in fuel cell systems is due to high differential pressures between the gas flow inside a fuel cell system and the atmosphere. Such high differential pressures can require substantial mechanical action to drive a rotating air flow chamber. The air flow chamber must be compressed, creating large frictional forces on rotating parts, to eliminate leakage of gases due to the large differential pressures.
Problems associated with gas flows are that the pressure differential between the atmosphere and the gas stream is quite high. It would be desirable to decrease the gas pressure within a rotating vessel thereby decreasing the size of a motor to drive a humidity control vessel.
Described is a method of conditioning a gas stream comprising passing the gas stream into a vessel which contains a rotating enclosure and which contains an apparatus to rotate the enclosure, which enclosure is pressure sealed from the surrounding atmosphere and which is divided into a plurality of modulating zones; and treating the inlet gas to modify its properties within the enclosure due to the presence of modulating materials within the zones in the enclosure; and passing the modified gas to an outlet of the vessel.
Also described is an apparatus for conditioning a plurality of gas streams comprising a vessel which contains an enclosure capable of rotating, which enclosure is pressure sealed from the surround atmosphere, by a second, outer enclosure, and is divided into a plurality of modulating zones; the zones having the ability to modify the properties of the gas streams coming in contact with the zones due to the presence of modulating materials therein; a motor within the vessel capable of rotating the enclosure within the vessel to facilitate the contacting of the gas streams within the zones and preferably a plurality of inlets to the vessel for the gas streams and a preferably plurality of outlets from the vessel to pass the modulated gas streams whereby the gas streams pass through the inlets to the vessel and then to the enclosures and are modified in the zones, as the enclosure is rotated, and exit from the enclosure zones in a modified form and then exit from the vessel.